


the brenatto house for wanderers in need

by nonbinarywithaknife (littleboxes)



Series: me sobbing about critical role [20]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clinging, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Families of Choice, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Implied Attempted Suicide, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, brief attempt at kidnapping, implied starvation, the brenattos just adopt everyone into a giant family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 16:52:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17770610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleboxes/pseuds/nonbinarywithaknife
Summary: First there's a bruised teenager in the woods. Then a purple tiefling with no shirt. A pale woman who carries the scent of storms. A malnourished man with fire in his eyes and dirt on his face. A pair of troublemakers from the Coast. She brings them all into her home.





	the brenatto house for wanderers in need

**Author's Note:**

> this is entirely the fault of @saltwaterwarlock on tumblr who you should go check out because their blog is cool and they have great headcanons  
> edited 4-28-19 for clarity/grammar

It starts when Veth finds a teenaged human girl, bruised and bloody, wandering the forest. (Well, technically, it starts the first time Veth brings home a baby raccoon, insisting that they need to raise it themselves because it’s mother was killed-)

But, for our purposes, The Unofficial Brenatto House For Wanderers In Need starts when Veth offers the girl dinner with no strings attached, and the girl, wary, but tired, and young, _so_ young, agrees.

And it takes absolutely no time at all for Beau to be adopted into the family- she takes out her anger on the wrapped bushels of hay that sit in the tillage, and lets Luke use her as a human climbing pole, and when the mercenaries show up, demanding she come with them? Yeza throws acid in their face and Veth runs for the Crownsguard, demanding they arrest these _kidnappers_ for attempting to take their daughter. (And it’s an easy case really- three armed men with no writ, attempting to bully the local alchemist into handing over his daughter? The Brenattos may be odd ones, but they’ve never been anything but kind.)

After, there are tears, and paperwork, and by sunrise she is Beau Brenatto, and she has never been happier. Veth and Yeza spoil her rotten, and she, in turn, helps spoil Luke the same way.

A year passes, and then, when Veth is out picking apples from the pair of trees that bloom by the river, she sees a purple tiefling stumble out of the forest, wearing nothing but a tattered pair of trousers, and mumbling to themself, she gently takes his hand and leads them (him-? She’ll have to ask-) home. Yeza sees the new addition as soon as they knock their horns on the door frame, and he sighs, amused. They’re going to have to put more additions onto the house, at this rate. “So, what’s this one’s name, then?” he asks.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I don’t think they know how to speak, currently,” she says blithely moving along to their second, and final, spare bedroom. Yeza takes a moment to think about the strange directions his life has taken since marrying Veth, and decides he made the right decision.

It’s Luke who most strongly insists on helping their newest guest learn to read. Granted, the two year old is not very much help, but when they get frustrated, they pull the tiny halfling into their lap and stroke his hair, and Luke preens at the attention. After a week, Molly is successful in telling them his name and pronouns. He improves much further from there. He insists that he will eventually pay the Brenattos back for their generosity, and is speechless when they turn and tell him that family doesn’t require repayment.

Molly and Beau get along like a house on fire- that is to say, Molly clings tightly to Beau and Beau is very much not a fan of his presence (or so she says, but she never stops him when he wraps his arm around her shoulders, and never gives more than a token protest when he calls her his sister.) Veth and Yeza watch as their three kids slowly fit themselves together, and Yeza makes sure to have those additions made. He’s under no illusions, and the construction isn’t very intrusive at all.

Molly has been with them four months when the woman who carries an aura of sadness and the smell of ozone and lightning practically walks into their backyard in the middle of a storm. Veth goes outside to meet with her of course, and insists she come inside immediately, because wandering around in storms with no coat, let alone with no _sleeves_ is practically a guaranteed cold. Yasha doesn’t protest this, and only after she’s been bullied by a creature half her size into sitting at her table with a steaming mug of hot- chocolate? does she realize perhaps she’s really gotten herself into something more than a stranger's kindness.

“Where am I?” she asks softly, and the halfling woman that introduces herself as Veth explains that she is in Felderwin, much farther west than she had assumed. Yasha takes a moment to process this, and figures it makes sense. They don’t have grass back in Xhorhas. By the time she’s finished her cup, it’s nearing midnight, and Veth insists that she stay the night. Yasha tries to protest, but the woman is firm, and Yasha is ushered to stay in Mollymauk’s room.

She wakes up  the next morning with a stuffy nose, a rather irritating headache, and a surprisingly smug looking Veth. “I _knew_ you’d get a cold. Well, absolutely no way we can have you go back out adventuring now, you’re likely to end up with pneumonia, or something worse!”

And that is how Yasha finds herself still staying with the Brenattos, days, weeks, months later. She thought she would feel trapped, staying in one place for so long, but. She doesn’t. Not here. She does go for walks, occasionally, just follows the river for hours, but always times it so she gets back in time for dinner. She always wears the coat that Yeza had commissioned for her, a couple weeks into her stay. It is fitted to her large frame, and keeps her warm during Felderwin’s cold winters. She treasures it.

It’s five months since Yasha, a year since Molly, two since Beau, when Veth catches the man covered in dirt with eyes full of demons trying to steal her basket of berries. She whacks him over the head with it, deciding that the berries are an unfortunate casualty, and takes in his skinny frame. She can see it, even hiding under all his tattered layers, and figures that anyone desperate enough to try and steal _nightshade berries_ needs a good meal. So, she invites him home, and when his eyes widen like a deer, and he seems like he’s about to bolt, she grabs his bandaged hand- gentle, but firm- and simply starts walking. (She doesn't miss the cat following them, either.)

 

Veth has always had a certain momentum about her- once she starts on something, she simply will not let it go until she has fulfilled whatever it is she set out to do. So, she drags the hobo-looking man home, into Yeza’s workshop, where he _was_ expecting her show up with a basket of nightshade berries, not a human and- he glances at Veth.

“Sweetheart, this one looks like an adult to me,” he says, knowing he’s lost this argument and delighting in it.

She raises an eyebrow at Yeza, and turns her full attention on the human, who shrinks back a little.

“What’s your name, then, little one?” she says, voice the same as when she speaks to Luke after a nightmare. The man blinks rapidly, and looks down at his hands. “Ah- I am, my name is, Caleb, Widogast, Miss, ah-?” his voice is rusty, like he hasn’t used it in a while, and he speaks with an accent, northern, she thinks.

Veth internally shakes her head. That’s a name come up with on the spot if she’s ever heard one. She’ll eat her basket of berries if that’s the name his mother gave him, but she knows everyone has their reasons, especially those who show up at _her_ home.

“Well, Caleb, when’s the last time you’ve eaten properly?” she asks, and shuffles him out towards the kitchen, a startled look remaining on his face the whole way.

Caleb, she decides, will share a room with Luke. She thinks about putting him in one of the new additions, but she doesn’t want to leave him alone. He has that haunted look about him, not so different from Yasha, and there is nothing more effective at dispelling demons than a not-quite-three-years-old halfling with plenty of questions about the world. She notices that he eats like a mix of soldier and starving man, and wonders if he isn’t- wasn't? both. The question remains unasked, just like all the others she has, and she makes sure he settles in and gets comfortable. She knows it can be adjustment, coming into an already established household. She remembers how Yasha was, before Molly decided to stick to her side like a loud, colorful burr.

All it takes is Beau catching one of Caleb’s mini lessons with Luke, and she decides that he will stay. Her efforts aren’t perfect, mostly gruff compliments and awkward conversation, but Caleb is just as bad, and somehow they form a friendship. She is happy to watch the seedling planted, and patiently excited to see the flower bloom.

(Veth feels a warmth in her chest when she spots Beau giving him an awkward, but heartfelt nonetheless, hug.)

Caleb hasn’t even been here a full month when the next two come tumbling in. Fjord and Jester, agents of chaos, even if one refuses to admit it. She sends Jester to Beau’s room and gives Fjord a one of the new additions. And if sometimes, she there as he coughs up saltwater and mumbles in a different accent than the one he uses at breakfast, well, that’s none of her business. Jester is an absolute delight, and Veth treasures every one of the drawings that is gifted to her. Yeza gifts her a full set of paints and inks, and her shriek of delight is probably heard all up and down the street, but Veth is too busy being happy to care.

(They all work together to stop the tusk filing, when they learn of it. Veth has never been so tempted to punch strangers before, after that particular story comes to light.)

Jester and Beau get along famously, and somehow, so do Fjord and Beau. Veth will freely admit to being mystified as to how that particular friendship has come about, but she doesn’t think on it too hard. No sense ruining a perfectly thing, after all.

Sometimes she likes to sit on the couch, Luke on her lap, Frumpkin at her feet, and listen to the house. The sound of Jester giggling as she executes some prank or another, the soft sshick-ing noise of Caleb turning the page in a book. Fjord and Beau having a mock debate about whatever topic they've picked out of a hat today. Yasha quietly humming to herself as she arranges flowers. The jingling of Molly’s horn bangles as he watches. The sound of bubbles popping and liquid stirring in their workshop, and the occasional yell as Yeza undoubtedly gets distracted and spills bleach on his hand, _again_.

She smiles as Frumpkin jumps up onto her lap, purring and rubbing against Luke’s leg. He lets out a squeal of joy, and begins petting him, blue eyes sparkling.

It brings her peace, her family.

**Author's Note:**

> i was going to add caduceus, but in the world of this fic, his family is happy and safe, the forest is fine, and i didn't want to take him away from that  
> the stormlord did lowkey lead yasha to felderwin btw


End file.
